defeat.




CHAPTER VI

A NEW FRIEND

Rod was late for school, and received a tardy mark. The teacher also
spoke quite sharply, and told him that school opened at nine instead of
a quarter after. At any other time Rod would have felt keenly this
reprimand. But now it did not trouble him, as he had other things to
think about. He was very quiet during the morning, and joined in none
of the games. Sammie Dunker left him alone, and for once the small
girls and boys had peace.

Rod gave hardly a thought to Tom Dunker's action in frightening him.
It was what he had said about the Poor House, and his father and mother
which worried him. "What did he mean?" he asked himself over and over
again. Why did he say that I should go to the Poor House instead of
living with decent people, and that I wouldn't own my parents if I knew
them? His brain grew hot as he brooded over these words. Other
children had their fathers and mothers with them, and why was it that
he had never seen his, and knew nothing about them? Mrs. Royal had
told him that his mother was living, and several times she had read her
letters to him. But she was a vague person, one he had never seen, and
in whom he had no special interest. The Royals, and the people he knew
in Hillcrest were of more importance to him than his own mother. But
now a desire entered his soul to know something about his parents.